So
you are thinking of taking Ocean 101, Autumn 2006?
Read below to see whether this option is right for you.
Thank you for considering Oceanography for
earning your Natural World credits. Both
sections of this class (A=lecture &
B=internet) depend heavily on online materials.
Please read the following description and check that you have
suffficient computer equipment and skills or are willling to obtain
them. Below is a short exercise to see whether you can access the types
of computer materials that you will need.
Lectures, assignments, readings, announcements,
and exams will be the
same for both sections. Lectures, assignments,
and readings will be posted
online via the web page. Announcements and class proceedings
will be posted online via the "Ship's Log." Lectures will be recorded
and podcasted for listening at your convenience. Video clips
on DVD or tape will be placed on
reserve
at OUGL media center. You can ask questions via electronic bulletin
board or email, and (for section A students) in discussion
sections.
Before you email me or the TA about this class, please consult the
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
page to see whether your question has already been answered.
Lecture section (A): Standard slideshow
lecture format, with no lab and one discussion section per week.
Thursday discussion sessions will be used for discussing lecture
material, conducting learning exercises, going over assignments, and
preparing for exams.
Internet section (B): Attendance is required for
exams only except for a required orientation
session at 2:30 Friday, September 29. Instructor office hours will be held in the lecture hall on
non-exam Fridays at
2:30 PM and at additional times to be scheduled by the TA's and posted.
Section B
students
may attend the Section A lecture and discussion sessions on a
space-available basis. If you have a conflict with the time of the
exams in the internet section, we will not be able to schedule a
separate
time for you to take the exams--consider enrolling for the A section
instead.
Please do not think that an internet class is an
easy way to get the same credit and the same grade as a lecture class
with less work. To take the place of class attendance without suffering
a lower grade, you should expect to spend at least at much time
reviewing the reading and online materials as you would spend in class.
The internet section is intended for two types of students: those who
have scheduling problems and need to time-shift their school work, and
those for whom science comes easily enough to make lecture attendance
discretionary. Internet students are expected to be at least as
diligent as lecture students to earn a good grade.
Exams for both sections: Four midterm
exams will be held on three Fridays at the scheduled class times. Multiple
versions of each exam will be administered in each
section. All midterm exams will be
50 minutes long. A
common two-hour final
exam for both sections A & B is
scheduled in Kane Hall
on the Saturday before final exam week. Be prepared to show
picture ID if necessary at all exams.
You must take all exams, including the final
exam,
at the assigned times. Because of the number of
students, we will not be able to offer individualized exam times.
You may take a makeup exam only in the case of
documented emergency or illness or approved academic conflict. Please
contact your TA in advance (or as soon as
possible in case of illness or accident) if you must miss an exam.
Fill out the scantron exam form carefully. Your
exam
grades will be kept in a "bookkeeping account" on the computer at the
Office of Educational Assessment. If you make errors or fill out the
form differently at different exams, it may be difficult to track down
your scores. Your TA will sort out problems at the end of the quarter.
Try out online materials: To quickly
gauge your ability to
access the necessary online materials, try each of the following links.
If you have any difficulty, please read the
details of the course materials explained
below.
View the online syllabus (the main page you
will use to keep track of what is going on in the course).
View the online sample Powerpoint lecture (in
Adobe Portable Document Format). The lectures are
formatted 4 slides to the page.
Listen to a sample
streaming MP3 lecture
file.
View the sample ERES (online readings in Adobe Portable Document
Format; requires login).
Try to print either the sample lecture or 1 page of an ERES
reading.
Online and Reserve Materials
Course material will be
posted online from links at the appropriate date on the online
syllabus. Some materials will also be placed on reserve in the UW
library system.
Lectures
Lectures will be posted online in Adobe
Portable Document Format (PDF). These can be read using Adobe Acrobat
Reader, a free download from the Adobe web
site.
Lecture PDF files will be available for viewing
and downloading via a link on the "Lectures" page.
Draft lectures are
posted in advance. If the lecture is modified for
presentation in class, a revised PDF file will be posted after class
and it will be announced and noted in the "Ship's Log."
Lectures are recorded digitally and podcasted via
the link in the left frame.
Students can subscribe to the podcast for convenience.
Lectures are posted only temporarily
because of limited server space. They will be removed and replaced by a
new set of materials after each exam.
The lectures are in outline form and
studying them alone will not necessarily prepare you as well for the
exams as listening in class and doing the assigned readings.
Viewing Lectures
All users: With modern browsers, the PDF files should open
for viewing within a browser window. You may use
the Save command to save a viewed PDF files to your fixed or portable
drive.
Windows users: to download PDF files from your
browser to your hard drive: 1) right-click on the link to the file,
select "save as," and enter where to save the
file in the dialog box; or 2) when the PDF
document is on view via the Acrobat Reader "plug-in" in your browser,
click on the diskette icon inthe toolbar at the top of the Acrobat
Reader window within the browser window, and enter where to save the
file in the dialog box.
Apple users: Right-click or control-click download the file directly to your computer (to a location specified in your
browser preferences).
Readings
Some supplemental readings can be accessed directly at external web sites
from links on the online syllabus.
Most supplemental readings
are posted online in as PDF files that can be viewed and downloaded via
the (ERES)
system. You will be required to log in with your UW NetID and to agree
to a copyright notice.
These readings are cited in the bibliography at
the bottom of
the syllabus page.
The textbook by Garrison is on reserve
at the OUGL.
Assignments
Study guides to
use for preparation will be handed out in class and posted as PDF files
from a link on the online syllabus no later than the day before each
review session.
Exams will cover only material that has been
presented in lecture or discussion section. Unless announced otherwise, you are not
responsible for reading materials that were not specifically
assigned and included in the lectures.
Homework and extra credit assignments, with their
deadlines and method for submission, will be announced in class and on
the Ship's Log (see below). For internet students, most if not all
assignments will be
submitted electronically.
Ship's
Log
Announcements, assignments, and activities from
each day's class will be posted daily in a diary format. Follow the
link from the frame at left.
Video
clips
Essential video clips will be posted online if
possible, or placed on
2-hour reserve at the OUGL Media Center. They are organized by unit,
with 1 or 2 DVD's per unit. On each DVD, clips are organized by lecture
number.
Communicating
Electronically
EPost
Epost is an online bulletin
board on which students can post questions. The messages accumulate on
the
board, can be sorted in various ways, and are visible to any class
member. The instructor and TA's will monitor the EPost discussions and
respond when necessary.
Epost is the primary method for asking
questions of the
instructor and TA' s that would be of general interest to the class as
a whole. It can also be used to pose questions that
can be answered by
other students.
A link to EPost is in the frame
at left on the course
web page. You must login with your UW Net ID to participate.
Email
Email your assigned TA if you have a question that pertains only to you or regards
a sensitive subject. If the TA cannot answer the question, he or she will contact the instructor. If you have a more
general question, please use Epost.
Links to email the instructor and
the TA's are posted in the frame at the left of the page. These do not
require a UW NetID and can be used from outside accounts such as
Hotmail, etc.
Mailing List
When you enroll you are
automatically subscribed to a class mailing list, one for each
section. This allows the instructor, the
TA's, or you
to send one email message that reaches the entire section. Mostly this
will be for use by the instructor and TA's. If you want to reach other
class
members, please use EPost (below) unless it is urgent for
some reason.
To post to the mailing list, you
need
to use your UW email account rather than an outside account such as
Hotmail. The system will prompt you to subscribe if you submit a
message from an outside account, but your subscription will be erased
because the enrollment is updated nightly to include only UW accounts.
WebQ
WebQ is a site at which the
instructor and TA's can post homework and other assignments as online forms.
Links to WebQ assignments will be
posted via the "Assignments" link in the frame at left on the course
web page. You must login with your UW Net ID to participate.
ESubmit
Esubmit is an online pathway for
students to submit written assignments, such as extra credit documents.
The
documents are stored on the Esubmit
site listed by student ID and can be viewed or downloaded for grading.
Please use Esubmit rather than
emailing documents
as attachments to the instructor or TA. Our inboxes cannot handle
assignments from 500+ students.
The documents must be in
Microsoft Word (.doc), Rich Text (.rtf), Adobe Portable Document
(.pdf), or plain text (.txt) format. We cannot read documents in
Microsoft Works, Word Perfect, or other formats.
A link to Esubmit is on the
course
web page. You must login with your UW Net ID to participate.
Umail
Umail is an online suggestion box. You can use it to send an anonymous email to the
instructor. Because it is anonymous, you cannot receive an individual
reply. The instructor will respond as appropriate to the class as a
whole in class or via the Ship's Log or Epost.